Drinking glasses may soon be a thing of the past in some Queensland pubs and clubs, with the State Government announcing a crackdown on alcohol-fuelled violence - specifically glassings.

Premier Anna Bligh wants to ban glass and replace it with plastic in any public bar or nightclub deemed a problem.

In the last year there have been 45 recorded cases of glassings in Queensland pubs and clubs - most of them on the Gold Coast and in Brisbane.

Going out on the town in Queensland is becoming increasingly dangerous and Ms Bligh says the attacks are escalating at an alarming rate.

"Enough is enough. We have to stop using glasses as weapons in drinking venues," she said.

"This is something which I think is causing increased community concern."

Last year, the State Government engaged a criminologist from Griffith University to examine the issue.

Professor Paul Mazerolle says he believes his research is the first of its kind in Australia.

"The reasons why it happens are multiple," he said.

"Sometimes it's payback but sometimes it's thoughtless behaviour and people who are angry and are reacting to a situation without having time consciously to make the decision.

"So it's very reactive, it happens in a split second."

Men are responsible for most glassings and they usually happen after midnight.

"People can obviously break glasses and use them as a sharp instrument like a knife but more glassings appear to be used within someone's fist; so a closed fist around a glass hitting somebody with their fist," Professor Mazerolle said.

Ms Bligh wants a ban on using glass in any pub or club deemed "high risk" by the end of the year.

"High-risk venues will be those venues which have some history of violence incidents that have required the intervention of the police," she said.

"It doesn't have to be a glassing incident, but we know there are a number of venues that have been regularly the subject of violence-related incidents and they are on record.

"In all of these high-risk venues we would expect to see some prohibition on use of glass."

Plastic 'not a solution'

But the Australian Hotels Association (AHA) Queensland head, Justin O'Connor, says it is unfair to target some venues when such assaults happen anywhere, anytime.

"Quite often there is no precursor activity; there's no pushing and shoving, there's no drink thrown in somebody's face or whatever," he said.

"The assault comes out of the blue and then you might have six months or 12 months at that premises, which have a very good record."

Mr O'Connor says he does not believe replacing glass with plastic will solve the problem.

"You can never guard against the use of a particular device or weapon as illustrated by, for example, the bikie death at Sydney Airport, that young man was bashed to death by a bollard," he said.

"So when somebody loses their sense of control, it's not so much the glass, it's really up to the individual and their personal behaviour and their personal responsibility."

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